Anatomy of a Magazine Layout

Magazine consists of several crucial elements.
Headlines
Kicker
Byline
Body copy
Pull Quote
Subheads
Image Captions
Folio
Panels and box copy

Headlines
As a reader opens the first page dominant image or layout catches his attention. Layout might be attractive but if headline is not appealing the reader may skip it. Headlines can vary in size and importance. It must be placed on top or center.

Intro( kicker, stand-first, deck)

Not all the articles have a deck but most features do. They usually are longer and have more information than headlines.

Byline or credit: It can be at beginning or at end. It tells us who the author is. If the author is important it must be below the deck otherwise at the bottom of body text.

Body copy/ body text

It is the largest of any article. It should be interesting as headline or deck. It should have a consistent size. Story should be presented in a way it suits content.

Pull Quote

It should be larger than captions. It is used to explain a photo or put words into mouth of a person. Pull quotes, decks, subheads and captions all fall under points of entery. It can be emphasized with frames or put in circles. They can be stretched across columns and must not be as big as headlines.

Subheads

Subheads are used to break up the body copy. Give clever insight into what reader can expect in next paras. They must be emphasized with bold font versions and can be a bit larger than body copy or can be same size. Following points about subheads must be followed: 

1. Subheads shall not be played below images.

2. They must not be placed in last 3 rows at too of coloumn.

3. They shall not be placed below pull out quote.

Subheads are to be working as seperate unit and nothing should get in their way.

Image captions

Image captions are parts of text which work with image they relate to. Image and image captions work as a unit. They must be placed on image or below it not above. Images should be placed on top of page. Captions can be set in one or two long rows or in several narrow rows. Hypenation should be turned off for image caption. They can be smaller a point or two than body copy. They are usually set in sans-serif.

Folio

Page number, section title, web page address, magazine name or issue date. Now they are printed on both pages.

Panels and box copy

These are extensions to a long article in which one can place other facts or relevant facts. Generally short text. They are same size as body text.

History of Magazines

In 1440s Johannes Gutenberg invented printing press to spread mass production of media.

Magazines are wide information storage for people. They cover topics of fashion, news, glamour and culture. It is study of media.

First fashion magazine was invented by a German in 1586.

In 1741 Angil Bradford introduced first magazine in USA. From 1740s to 1880s magazines in America were directed to hierarchy. These people tended to socially educate themselves to Europe. Earlier magazines resembled small self-covered books.

They were very expensive to produce. Poor people could not read or publish magazines until in 1883 a producer dropped the price of his magazine to 15 cents and it was sold widely. There was drastic cut in prices of other magazines and there was a wide circulation. It opened field of fashion, culture and other areas to people. 'SATURDAY EVENING POST' by Norman Rockwell was first successful magazine in USA.

Popularity of magazines was to continue until permanent into of televison in 1950 which was a mode of excitement for people.

Magazines continued their survival by adapting with modern social media.

Genres of MAGAZINES

There are various kinds of genres for magazines depending on audience it is made for. Audience determines colour schemes and font style of magazine as well as front cover.

Women( Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Marie Claire)

Teen( Seventeen, Teen Vogue)

News Magazine( Time, Newsweek etc)

Sports

Home and Garden

Fashion Magazine

Lifestyle/Fitness

Gossip Magazine(Star, In Touch)

Most popular based on sales:

Entertainment

Sports

Home and Garden

Money/Finance

News

Food/Cooking

Fashion

Examples:

Colour Palette: This shows a lot of pink colour. This is for girls. Pink symbolizes girls,

Image: If a young star is shown it means that the magazine is to attract young teen girls.

Text: If font is softer, it shows feminism.

Colour Palette: It shows various colours of bright red which symbolizes spices in food. Typical colours of yellow, green and red are shown. They are all bright. It has neatly written text in red.

Image: There is major image of food which is mouth watering and underneath are other images of healthy food.

Text: It is upright and bold. Red attracts immediately.

Colour Palette: The background is dark green in colour symbolizing nature, with grey rabbit in contrast. Yellow and white also show nature.

Image: Rabbit is a very cute animal and symbolizes softness.

Text: Text is not scattered and it is precise. It is in white and yellow.

Colour Palette: Black, white, yellow and red colours are for rock magazine. There is addition of pink one in this to show that rock stars are females. This magazine attracts young people.
Image: The rock stars are made seductive by their looks and dressing to attract men.There dresses are in yellow and black.
Text: Stashed text suggests loudness.

work on ILLUSTRATOR

Typography

There are 17 kinds of most used fonts.
Serif
Serif fonts are easy to read. They have lines embellished into dots at the ends. Serif means 'lines'. This font originated in Latin alphabet. Examples are Times Roman, New Century Gothic, Platino

Sans Serif
They have simple lines composure. They are derived from French word Sans which means 'without' and serif which means 'lines'. Examples are Helvetica, Avant, Garde

Display
It is a headline type font. It is meant to draw attention. It is used on advertisements and billboards. They are larger than 14 points.

Slab Serif
This is 200 years old font. It came from Britain. They have geometric and beefy-blocks like serif. It has typographic authority that draws attention

Other than these fonts there are many more like Hand Drawn, Script, Retro etc.

INTRODUCTION

Love reading books and late nights out with friends...  vailiyaan master lol
Main Task: More front page, contents and double page spread of a new magazine. All images and text used in the main task must be original.